The City of Rochester is moving ahead with a plan to create a local bikeshare system.
The city is now seeking proposals from private companies or vendors to help design, build, and manage a network of publicly-accessible bicycles throughout Rochester.
"We have had a lot of interest, and had some businesses downtown that were thinking of going out on their own, which told us we really need to move this along," said City engineer Jim McIntosh.
He says the program is a natural extension of the recently installed bike lanes and growing interest in alternative forms of transportation.
"Visitors to the city can use these bikes. People in apartments in a downtown setting sometimes (find) the bikeshare system is easier for them than to buy a bike and try to find a place to store it, or rent a place to store it."
A report last year by Toole Design Group of Silver Spring, Maryland and commissioned by the Genesee Transportation Council cited potential health, economic and business benefits from a public bike share program.
"People on a bike - like people walking - are much more likely to stop and browse a shop than someone in a car, and so using those stats, a lot of businesses with retail on the first floor are interested in attracting that type of activity that a bikeshare facility provides,” McIntosh said.
Once a proposal is accepted, McIntosh says the system could be in place as early as this fall, but more likely next spring.
The city wants to phase in the program, starting with 250 bikes at 25 stations and gradually increasing to 1,000 bikes at 100 locations, perhaps eventually expanding to some neighboring towns, especially those along the Erie Canal.
The system is anticipated to be publicly available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at least from April to November. It could be extended to year-round service is there is enough demand.
The city has set an August 3 deadline for proposals for the project.
